Katie Holmes and Connor Cruise were by Tom Cruise's side last night as the actor picked up an award from the Wiesenthal Center at the Four Seasons Hotel in LA. Tom earned the Jewish human rights organization's humanitarian honor, and the distinction was earned due to his longtime support of their Museum of Tolerance in addition to work bringing Nazi atrocities to light. He was especially able to reveal WWII abuses in the film Valkyrie, playing a German soldier who attempted to assassinate Hitler. Tom had friends and business partners from movie projects of the past, present, and future on hand to wish him well. His old Jerry Maguire buddy, Cuba Gooding, Jr., turned out, along with his Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol friends like Jeremy Renner, who's actually taking over the MI franchise, and Paula Patton. J.J. Abrams, who wrote the script for the latest installment of the action series, was on hand to emcee the proceedings. Even Malin Akerman, who nabbed the lead in Tom's new film Rock of Ages, came out to show love for the superstar. Malin and Tom's other costar, Russell Brand, was off jet-skiing in Miami, though, and couldn't make it. Tom was touched about the prize and made a short speech from the stage. Tom Cruise said of his humanitarian award, "It's a tremendous honor. For me and my family this is really a very special evening and I look at what Simon Wiesenthal accomplished with his life, what this museum represents . . . Our challenge, ladies and gentlemen, is to make sure that we do all in our power to see to it that there will be no more Auschwitz Birkenaus, no more Rwandas, no more Darfurs on our planet. That our children and their children may be free to live in a world where men and women are judged by their accomplishments and deeds rather than by their race or religion."
